Monday, October 31, 2011

My First Thoughts on the Martha Stewart Loom

On Friday I was finally able pull all the pieces out and check out my new looms. I love how many different ways I am going to be able to use the Martha Stewart Looms. I have been very anxious to try out a hat using a fine gauge and with my new looms this is finally going to be possible.

As of right now my loom is set up with 2 semi-circle pieces and 2 of the straight 12 piece parts. This is a total of 80 pegs. I am using Lion brand Jiffy yarn in Caffe and only using one strand to do a knit 2, purl 2 for two rows and then switching to purl 2, knit 2 for the next two rounds. I have only knit 24 rounds (2 inches) so far, but I am loving the look of this stitch.

When I first started it was a little intimidating at first. I have been using the Knifty Knitter Looms for so long and have gotten very comfortable and pretty fast on these looms, so switching to a new loom that is more of an oval shape and so many pegs took a little getting used too. I noticed that I was having an easy time with the knit stitches, but the purl stitches every now and then were a little difficult. When I was pulling the loop up it would get "stuck" on the next peg over, so I was having to pick up the stitch again to move it. I used the stop
watch on my phone to see how long it was taking me to complete a
round. On my second round it took me 7 minutes and 24 seconds! Last
night I could tell that I had picked up the pace and was able to
complete a round in 5 minutes and 13 seconds. Not too bad.

I would love to buy a second set of these looms, so that I can have more projects going at once. I feel like I could get burnt out easily with the fine gauge, so it would be nice to change things up with working on another project. That way I could just go back and forth between the two looms.

I am very happy with my purchase and would definitely recommend the Martha Stewart Looms . I hope to have pictures to post soon and will try to post a picture of my work in progress.